


The Act of Knowing

by fuladaris



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, this was mostly an excuse to infodump some headcanons lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 02:22:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29710182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuladaris/pseuds/fuladaris
Summary: Because sometimes, when the two men argue, he’ll allude to Team Flare, he’ll say there are things his partner could never hope to know about him, he’ll say that he doesn’t trust even Augustine with everything. This enrages the professor, of course, and the affronted younger man usually responds by proving he knows Lysandre better than Lysandre realizes, and that attention to detail makes things so much harder for Lysandre, especially because he can’t help but notice little details about Augustine, either -And the fact that he loves the professor this much is frightening.
Relationships: Fleur-de-lis | Lysandre/Platane-hakase | Professor Augustine Sycamore
Kudos: 17





	The Act of Knowing

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr in two parts but reposted here as a one-shot, the two parts of this fic were something I wrote in response to this post: https://fuladaris.tumblr.com/post/630704967051771904
> 
> (If you're curious, the very very brief bit at the end beginning with "Because there are other things he knows - things he cannot say aloud" was the "second part," posted as a direct follow-up to the rest of it.)
> 
> Anyway - thank you for reading!!! This is one of the last fics I needed to move over from tumblr - lots of new content is planned for after!

"I don't know you? _I_ don't know _you_?”

“No,” Lysandre replies coolly, “you don’t.”

(Because sometimes, when the two men argue, he’ll allude to Team Flare, he’ll say there are things his partner could never hope to know about him, he’ll say that he doesn’t trust even _Augustine_ with _everything_. This enrages the professor, of course, and the affronted younger man usually responds by proving he knows Lysandre better than Lysandre _realizes_ , and that attention to detail makes things so much _harder_ for Lysandre, especially because he can’t help but notice little details about Augustine, either -

And the fact that he loves the professor this much is frightening.)

“You’re such a _bastard_ \- You think you’re that guarded?! You think, after all this time, that I don’t _know_ you?”

 _He is so affronted that a slap to the face probably wouldn’t have hurt him more_ , Lysandre muses, watching as, with every sentence Augustine speaks, he jabs a finger into Lysandre’s chest.

“I know that when you have a nightmare at night, you don't want to be told 'It's okay,' you want to be told 'You will get past this,’” Augustine is saying. “I know you created every recipe in your cafe’s menu and can bake them all from memory. I know you used to play piano and that, sometimes, when you drum your fingers on my thigh, you're playing little melodies for me. I know you've never lost a game of chess in your life. I know you have a soft spot for Porygon, even though you’ve never owned one. I know you want a pond filled with Magikarp in your backyard and that you can't help but feed Pokepuffs to any you see in the wild. Oh, and speaking of Pokepuffs - I know the favorite flavor of each and every one of your Pokemon. And I know you sneak food to _my_ Pokemon when it looks like I'm not looking, and I know you know I _am_ looking but you're doing it anyway.” 

Augustine finally stops jabbing him, but the professor’s expression is no less enraged.

“I know every curve in your handwriting and that you write so quickly sometimes that you forget to dot your I's - the less dots I see, the more passionate you are. I know you only put sugar in your coffee on the days you have a new Holo Caster update coming out - I don’t know _why_ you do it that way, but I know it's the only days you _haven’t_ taken it black, in all the time I’ve known you. I know you listen when I sing in the shower, because I've heard you tell the Pokemon to be quiet because you need to hear it. I know you’ve chased visitors out of my lab because you know I’m working and don’t want others to disturb me. And I know-”

Lysandre finally snaps out of his bemused shock and grabs Sycamore’s accusatory hand, which is about to go back to poking him in the chest, but even as he is stilled, the professor still hisses at him. “I know all of that, because I love you and I made sure to learn these things - and you think I _don't_ know you? I know you better than _anyone_ , and you sure as hell _can’t_ bring yourself to reciprocate, can you-”

“That’s not true, you little drama queen,” Lysandre growls back. “I know-” And as the words spill from him, as his voice softens with every revelation, he realizes how much he _does_ know, how he’s spent so much time in the Professor’s presence over the years, how he can name dozens of quirks of Augustine’s for every one detail he can _guess_ about his Admins, his Scientists - even Malva, whom he’d known since childhood.

“I know the story behind every little scar you have,” Lysandre is saying, tracing his fingers along some of the thin white scars that line the professor’s hands. “I know you’re trying to learn all of my cafe’s recipes, because I’ve seen what ingredients you keep in your fridge, and some of them are familiar to _me_ , even though I’ve never seen _you_ cook with them before. I know you prefer to _saturate_ your coffee with sugar, and that if you drink it black it’s because you’re in the middle of an intense research spell and you don’t want to fall asleep. I know _I_ worry when you take your coffee black because of it. I know you can’t sleep without white noise on, and I know you’ve stayed up all night sometimes because you’ve shut it off out of fear that I _can’t_ sleep with it on - but I can, my love, I promise, so please do not sacrifice your rest for me. Hell, I know you’re lying when you say it takes you hours to get ready in the morning, because I’ve shared your bed so many times - you _wake up like this_ , more often than not. You’re a natural beauty, and yet I know you pluck your gray hairs because you’re afraid I’ll love you less for them.”

(Perhaps, at one point, he would have, but something about Augustine’s beauty is everlasting, even as he shows signs of aging.) 

“I know you got caught in a snowbank as a child and that’s why you picked a Fire-type starter. I know you made me let my Pyroar out when we watched that kid’s film because you pictured _him_ falling off the cliff and that _that_ was why you started crying, because you love my Pokemon as if they are your own. And, of course, I feel such fondness for yours as well. I know your Pokemon’s Pokepuff choices, too, after all, and I save some of the ones your Delphox really likes because they’re my Mienshao’s favorite too, and I don’t want to run out.”

He tilts Augustine’s chin up, makes the professor - whose own anger seems to be fading away - look him in the eyes. “I know you can remember every single starter you’ve given out, and could pick them all out of a crowd, and tell who went to which trainer at a glance. I know you’ve read every book in your apartment, and that if I picked one at random, you could tell me enough about it that _I_ wouldn’t have to read it. I know you can’t roller-skate, but damn if you don’t ice-skate as prettily as a ballerina dances. I know you _ballroom_ dance better than I do, somehow. I know you could sing along to every piano melody I’ve tapped out on your leg, since you mentioned _that_ little detail. I know _you’ve_ never lost a game of chess, either, which is perhaps why we’ve never played each other.”

He draws Augustine up into a brief kiss, rests their foreheads together when they part. “And, more than any of that - I know I love you, and that you love me. You know this, too, yes?”

“Yes,” Augustine whispers, and he breaks, and that makes something in Lysandre break, too.

Because there are other things he knows - things he cannot say aloud.

_For I know I keep you calm, sometimes, with my vague allusions to marriage, and I know that it is cruel of me to do so, because I know you really **do** want to get married, and I know if you asked me to elope with you - to run away from Kalos and forget about the ugliness plaguing the world - that I would do it. I would go with you, I would marry you, and, only if for a night, I would forget._

_But I know I can’t say this, because I know that if I do, you will ask, and I will oblige, and I won’t be able to leave you behind when the time comes to put my plans into motion. I won’t be able to do what needs to be done. And the fact that I know this scares me._

_I know you are my one weakness, Augustine, and what I do not know is how to overcome this weakness._

_~~And I don’t know if I want to.~~ _


End file.
